Monday, July 20, 2009

24 Years in the Making

My friend posted some pictures of her wedding day to mark their anniversary today. I've been meaning to post a note about my anniversary date this year, so thanks for the reminder Mindy G.

Kent and I were married on July 3 twelve years ago. This year he wanted to work on his new business website, so we celebrated on the second. We grabbed dinner at Carl's Jr. and saw "The Brothers Bloom" at the dollar theater. Sounds lame, I know. But this year all we both really wanted to do was get out of the house for a little while, and our date-on-the-cheap took us back twelve years ago to living on a shoestring. (On the night Kent proposed, he was wearing his construction work clothes, including jeans with the knees ripped out, and we ate for under $10 at a little dive in Provo. You have to admit, too, that Carl's Jr. six-dollar burgers are pretty great. I hate their advertising, but love their burgers. The movie was fun too. Happy dozen!

On the big day, July 3, my kids and I went boating with my sister's family and my mom. It being a holiday this year, we thought a lot of boaters would be out. But Utah Lake's size usually allows for that to not be a problem. The day was gorgeous and sunny, as evidenced by my sunburn the next several days. The kids had a blast, except when the couch-sized tube got submarined (we were going too slowly) and #5 got dunked. But he eventually got over that.

My first experience trying to water ski was when I was nine. My patient grandpa gave me lots of tries, but the only thing I could "get up" on was the knee board, mostly because you don't have to stand; you just kneel. I had lots of other attempts at water skiing and wake boarding at youth activities and in-law family trips to Lake Powell. But I have never once stood up on the water. The tubes and water weenies were my friends. After my brother-in-law bought a boat a few years ago, he also spent lots of patient coaching sessions with me. Last year, I declared that I was done wasting everyone's time and I would stay exclusively with tubes from now on. July 3 was my chance to stick to my guns. (Have you noticed? I'm using as many cliches as possible this post, just for fun.) Then my mom offered me $20 to get up and stay up for ten seconds. Well, with money on the line, you know I'm not turning that down!

Here are several pictures of how my attempts this year were pretty much identical to my attempts in the past:

And then, miracle of miracles, this was witnessed by ten bored people on the boat:

My mom said I earned the $20, though I think I was up for six seconds max. Funny thing was, I had never concentrated on anything besides not flipping nose-first into the lake, so once I was up for those precious six seconds, I figured I was done and let go of the tow rope. At least I have a goal for doing something else if I ever get up on a wakeboard again!

Photo tip for the day: Taking pictures on a moving boat of a person moving all over the wake is really hard. My sister and her husband of course can pop right up, and I got a few good shots of her. But when he started jumping the wake, I got a lot of shots of water. (Maybe my sister is just a crazy driver.) Here's the best picture I got of him jumping:

That's him in the far right. His wakeboarding skills are pretty good. You'll just have to take my word for it!

P.S. For the record (is that five cliches?), I turned down the prize money. The accomplishment was reward enough!

4 comments:

Oh, and I don't think there is anything wrong with cheap anniversaries. David got me skittles and Nutella this year, and we took the kids out to El Azteca with us for our anniversary dinner. And it was nice.